Rise of a Hero
by Lone-ranger1
Summary: Lt. Fullerton wasn't born a hero, he rose to the occasion. See the story of how a man goes from average grunt in Washington to a legend worthy of Havoc, leading the charge against the Scrin in Stuttgart.


**Rise of a Hero**

_Lt. Fullerton wasn't born a hero, he rose to the occasion. See the story of how a man goes from average grunt in Washington to a legend worthy of Havoc, leading the charge against the Scrin in Stuttgart._

**Author's Note: **This was one of my very first writing projects. I never did finish it and want to do it justice. Inspiration is a fickle thing sometimes…

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**- North Carolina Yellow Zone -**

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_ "Santa's comin' to town!"_

GDI Rifleman Sergeant Thomas Fullerton looked up towards the sound of rocket boosters firing. Amid the chaos of battle, he was amazed to see how gracefully the Commando could use such a brute method of flight. The pinging of bullets nearby jolted him back to reality as the Commando soared up into the air, almost out of sight.

His squad along with the new Blue Zone B-2 Commander's Regiment had just destroyed a rather large Nod base in North Carolina that had harassed nearby GDI elements. Now they were hunting down survivors and stragglers from the Ion Cannon strike that had obliterated the majority of the base.

"Stay in formation!" Fullerton screamed as he ducked behind cover and let out a burst from his broken down husks of buildings scattered throughout the yellow zone of North Carolina gave everyone involved the advantage of easy to find cover.

There were still a few scorpion tanks and raider buggies along with militia troops trying to escape. The rocket jockeys were having all too much fun tracking the enemy vehicles, their anti-armor shells not incredibly effective against a well trained infantry force.

Fullerton saw the Raider Buggy keeping them pinned down shatter from multiple rocket impacts, "Riflemen! Move out!" His six man squad acknowledged the order and covered each other as they broke out. They concentrated fire on the infantry targets, leaving the vehicles to the rocket jockeys and the Orcas.

Fullerton winced as he felt the rush of an Orca screaming by, its VTOL jump jet making an ungodly wake. A trio of rockets burst out tearing apart one of the braver Scorpion tanks which defended the retreating force. He waved his squad to go prone, the blast wave from the rockets hitting the scorpion tank created a micro dust storm. "Keep the fire comin' boys!" His squad screamed obscenities at him but kept on firing.

Fullerton gasped at what he saw, the commando he'd seen earlier had landed right in the middle of two dozen nod militants, crushing him under his battle armor upon landing. Despite looking quite similar to Fullerton's own standard issue GDI armor, it was much more advanced, ceramic plating, adaptive armor, and powered joints. It was a marvel to behold.

The Nod troops panicked, Fullerton knew they had heard of GDI Commandos and their seeming invulnerability. Fullerton _almost_ felt sorry for Commando gave the Nod troops a second to recover before he started laughing as they brought their weapons to bear, the older style automatic rifles didn't have enough punch to take him down without sustained fire. He let the bullets bounce off him for a bit and then opened up with his own rifle. "Aw, it's the thought that counts!"

It was a massacre, Fullerton watched the modified rail gun tear into the Nod troopers with impunity, one tried to use his rifle as a shield and the rounds just tore through it, him and the trooper behind him. The commando turned around at a loud rumble, Fullerton watched a Scorpion Tank trying to run the Commando over. Fullerton wished for a missile launcher, but the Commando didn't hesitate. "Goin' up!"

The rocket booster on the Commando's armor ignited, the scorpion tank tried to turn the turret up, but something seemed to be wrong, all of a sudden the tank exploded violently raining shrapnel ever the battlefield behind the Commando's jump.

Fullerton froze, the immediate threat was gone, and the Orcas and Missile Squads to the front were mopping up the rest. He had to meet this man who had just landed leaving small divots in the ground. "Sir! Are you alright!"

The commando turned to look at Fullerton, "And that was left handed!"

Fullerton was speechless as the Commando moved off to regroup with his squad. He'd spent the last few hours fighting as hard as he could with his rifleman squad, yet compared to this commando, it seemed almost insignificant. The stories of their exploits suddenly didn't seem like such propaganda.

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The battle was won, and now the GDI trucks were giving them a ride back to Washington to get some sack time. Fullerton had checked with his squad and the others, it'd been a one-sided battle but that didn't mean it wasn't satisfying. An Engineer peering through some binoculars caught something in the distance ahead of them "Is that… smoke?"

Fullerton took a look through his own binoculars and confirmed it. There were smoke trails coming up from the blue zone. It wasn't long after that that behind the static of their radio they could hear pleas for assistance and orders to fall back. Fullerton feared what was going on as he clicked his radio on. "This is GDI Recon patrol 1 and 2, does anybody read us?"

Static washed through, a garbled transmission managed to come in. _"GD… on 1 and 2! This is …. ain hunter…. Firehawk A-12, Respond!"_

One of the riflemen in the back of the truck piped up. "That's Captain Hunter, my brother in law. He's a Firehawk Pilot on CAP duty near the Pentagon."

Fullerton nodded and got back to the radio. "Firehawk A-12, What the _hell_ is going on?"

The static cleared up as the engineer driving tuned into the proper frequency. Fullerton's blood chilled as Hunter's voice screamed. _"Recon 1 and 2, Nod forces have taken us totally by surprise! Philly staion's gone and we got Nod up to our necks!" _The soldiers were all quiet, it seemed like a horrible joke._ "I'm routing you back to the Commander, get your asses back here now."_

Fullerton swallowed the lump in his throat, with EVA now sending them information from Hunter's Firehawk, he could see how bad the situation actually way. Nod Forces had begun a full scale invasion of every blue zone. They were destroying everything with a GDI logo on it and driving civilians underground. Reykjavik had fallen, GDI forces driven off by the flood of Nod Forces. Germany was under siege and Sydney didn't look any better. The only good news was that the Pentagon was still under GDI control. But Nod was already repositioning their forces to strike it.

_"New orders received." _EVA, the female voiced AI GDI checked his wrist unit as did the rest of the team. Nearing Washington, it was clear that a battle was raging on. The orders were for Fullerton's squad to reinforce the Pentagon along with the detachment of Engineers who they were to meet up with on the border. The old training base would be a fall back point in case they needed it – not something Fullerton wanted to think about.

The Orcas were to try and land at Langley Air Force base before it was overrun, low on fuel, Fullerton wished them luck. The MCV on the other hand was to fall back to a full division, GDI had to regroup and the MCV would prove necessary. The Commando on the other hand would head for Hampton Roads on his own, something Fullerton didn't understand, EVA said it was overrun with Nod forces.

Fullerton felt his heart sink as the troops dispersed, he'd been glad to get off patrol duty when this all started, but now it was turning into something horrifying.

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**- Washington DC, Blue Zone -**

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The truck let down its ramp and Fullerton and his squad stormed out to meet the engineering detail. The walls bordering Blue Zone B2 were scorched and damaged, Fullerton grimaced at it all. Streets empty of civilains, broken and burned buildings dominated the skyline between them and the Pentagon. They could already see the violence playing out in the streets of Washington, Bombs seemed to materialize out of thin air and leave deep craters in the streets below

After clearing the immediate area, his squad and the other original squad he'd set out with moved out. Behind them, the five strong Engineer squad followed to assess and repair any damage done to the Pentagon.

EVA filtered down the orders from the defending commanders. Fullerton checked the map on his wrist. _"Recon 1 and 2, you are to escort GDI Engineer Squad 35-A to the Pentagon and immediately expedite repairs to the power grid. Nod Soldiers have overrun the backups and the Pentagon Defense Grid is offline. Reinforcements are 15 minutes out."_

Fullerton pushed his troops forward, in the distance, he could see flashes of light in the skies above the Pentagon - Nod Stealth Bombers. They dropped their payload and the firestorm defence grid of the Pentagon barely held from the resounding blasts. Fullerton waved his team forward. "Move it troopers! The Pentagon needs that defence grid!"

As they ran forward, Fullerton could hear the Commander giving orders on the command frequency; the troops inside the Pentagon were returning fire but it just wasn't enough. Another five minutes and the stealth bombers would return and take away the last line of defence.

Directly overhead he heard the whine of fighter engines, and the whirring hum of a chain gun. A Nod Venom was chasing down a retreating Firehawk that had expended its ammunition. Smoke and debris fell off the jet as the Venom hit a sensitive spot – the Firehawk suddenly listed to one side, the opposite wing sheared off, and it fell to pieces into a nearby building. Fullerton held his hand up in a fist. "Get down! Don't let it spot us!"

The Engineers took cover; the rifleman who'd recognized the Firehawk Pilot cursed and lamented the loss of his brother in law – just another reason to hate Nod.

A few seconds passed and the Venom went back the way it came. Fullerton bottled his rage as they moved out, now nearing the Pentagon's defence grid. Shouting could be heard ahead, the next block had a quartet of Militants, and these armed with older style RPGs. Not much punch against his shock absorption armor, but a direct hit or 2 would still take him out. He pointed to the sides of the road. "Flank them, Take 'em down."

The two squads moved to either side of the street with a practiced motion, the Engineers taking cover. They hurried down ducking from cover to cover; the RPG squad were almost on top of them when Fullerton ordered his troops to open fire.

Twelve automatic rifles opened up on the four militants. It was over before it started as they screamed from the high velocity rounds tearing them to shreds. Fullerton noticed they didn't wear much armor and what little they did had little effect.

Fullerton took a moment to personally kick one of the dead militants in the head – just in case. He then saw the power plant grid up ahead, there were easily fifty militants going crazy with their riot. They were firing at just about anything they could and were slowly damaging the power grid buildings beyond repair. A cable here, a connection there, nothing too serious just yet but with nobody regulating the power flow, useless.

Fullerton pointed to a nearby guard tower and looked at Corporal Tyler Dini in charge of Squad 2."Get up that guard tower and pick off anyone who fights back."

Corporal Dini gave a thumbs up and turned to his men. The riflemen were ready for a little payback.

Fullerton formed his men up as a V with one covering their flank. He planned to use the element of surprise to his advantage and punch a hole for the Engineers to get the power flowing. He led the rush and waited until close range before he squeezed the trigger. Nod didn't even notice his squad until it was too late.

The fully automatic weapon had a gyroscopic stabilizer built in. He could hold the trigger till the 100 round mag was empty and hit within a foot of his target every time. The screaming of dying nod militants was overshadowed by the screams of wanting GDI blood. Fullerton took the chaos and used it to his advantage as his squad carved into the Nod troops, one falling after another. The Nod troopers had unstabilized rifles and the few that returned fire mostly missed.

Dini'ssquad did their job well - Fullerton could see the sheets of hot metal tracing paths right above and in front of him. He tore into any militant he saw, stepping over dead or near dead bodies and hunting for more..

The Nod militants finally took notice of them, but Fullerton and his squad were simply too experienced. They took cover, used corners and team covering tactics to push the Nod militantsback. The Nod troops fell back into the power plants, but Fullerton knew the schematics better than they. A few minutes was all it took to hunt them down and clear the area. Fullerton signaled the engineers to come in and begin repairs, and then pushed forward with his six man squad to keep the pressure on. "Dini! Come down from that tower and secure the Pentagon's entrance. We need those troops inside out here!"

Dini clicked in response to the order, they were moving out.

_"Attention, Nod Bombers on approach."_

Fullerton looked up at EVA's voice. The Engineers must have gotten some juice to the defensive grid. He screamed into his radio. "Engineers, Get power to the AA turrets now!"

The engineers replied affirmative. Fullerton couldn't tell whether or not they could do it in time but he had little choice. His squad moved efficiently, gunning down any militants that crossed their path and clearing entrances for the Engineers, one by one they were staying behind to take care of the individual plants .

He suddenly heard a giant rip and whine as some of the AA turrets littered around the Pentagon came to life and started firing upon the incoming bombers. Fullerton saw the V formation of them in the air, two took hits right away and veered off, one wasn't in range and the fourth kept on coming.

It dropped its bomb right at the entrance to the Pentagon, Fullerton quietly cursed as he prayed that Squad two had taken cover. The bomb nose dived into the building, the Firestorm Defence Wall flared and absorbed a good amount of the blast, but it flickered and stuttered under the blow. A shockwave of wind blew past Fullerton who ducked instinctively along with his squad. A second later the firestorm defence grid collapsed and the last shield of the Pentagon went down. The bomber went down too after a few seconds of sustained fire tore it into scarps of raining metal.

_"Attention all GDI forces in the area, The Pentagon has taken severe damage and is at risk of being overrun, This is the last command hub we've got people, It falls, We fall. Surrender is not an option."_

It was the Commander. His words rang clear; Nod was on the verge of victory. Fullerton cleared his mind – fuck that, he had Nod to kill.

_"Squad 1 this is Squad 2, do you read?"_

Relief seeped into Fullerton's system. "Dini! You alright?"

_"A little toasted around the edges but we're fine. We've got the troops from inside the building with us, we're coming out in a minute to hold them off. Any chance you getting those Watchtowers back up?"_

Fullerton grinned despite himself. "More than a chance, Engineer Squad, divert power to the Watchtowers ASAP!"

Thirty seconds passed as Fullerton jogged towards the road by the Pentagon and the watchtowers suddenly sprang to life. Their IR sensors and 20mm rail guns lit up and came to life.

There was a mass rush of Nod militants in the green area by the Pentagon - furious that GDI was fighting back. Fullerton watched as they walked into a meat grinder as the 20 mm shells tore through whole ranks of them with impunity.

_"Yeah, eat it you Nod bastards!" _One of the Engineers was pleased. The towers were working well.

Fullerton regrouped his squad. two of the engineers were still available as the other three needed to maintain the power plants. The last wave of Nod Troops had been torn to shreds by the towers and it had grown quiet in the area, but booms could be heard in the distance. Fullerton realized he was the ranking officer on the field and spoke into his radio. "Alright, we need to get that Firestorm system up and running, without it, the Pentagon is an easy–"

As he finished his sentence a massive explosion came in from behind him. The remaining three Nod bombers had repurposed their mission and had taken out the entire defensive power grid in a heavy salvo.

_"Goddamnit all!_ Pentagon Command! This is Sergeant Fullerton, Nod bombers have levelled the defensive power grid, I repeat, all tower defences are now offline!"

A few seconds passed. Fullerton could make out Nod transports landing a kilometre away – mere moments were left to regroup.

_"Sergeant, we're sending you every man who can carry a rifle, get into those guard towers and hold them off, we've got reinforcements incoming from the east in ten. You hold them that long. Copy?"_

Fullerton let out a long breath. Ten minutes was an eternity. "Copy." Fullerton shot quick orders; there were four guard towers in good positions towards the Nod attack, the thirty odd men coming towards him now would be hard pressed to defend that much with only rifles. He let out a gasp of relief when he saw them carrying a few heavier bipod mounted machine guns.

Dini was off coordinating the real riflemen while men in Dress Blues and Greens approached him. They wore haphazard armor, but looked military. "Sir, we've got 2 of these, I think you'd be better off with them."

Fullerton sighed and looked over at the Nod transports taking off. Nobody was a non-combatant anymore. "Get those into those two towers." He pointed at the two nearest the Nod troops. "Recon 1 and 2 will occupy those, divide the rest of your men into those other 2 to back us up."

Despite the surprise, the men got to it. Fullerton could see that they'd understood just how bad the situation was and were ready. GDI training was second to none.

Fullerton charged up the stairs of the tower, the top level already manned by some of his men. He swung open the bi-pod on the machine gun and got his heaviest trooper to man it on the edge of the concrete armoured wall. Fullerton engaged his helmet's noise cancelling device and got into a position at the edge of the railing beside it.

The tower was made of solid steel coated with hardened concrete and would take a beating, but a few lucky RPG strikes and the whole thing could come toppling over. Fullerton didn't want to experience that kind of fall.

They waited. Fullerton gave orders to hold fire until a good amount of the Nod troops were close enough to ensure a good kill zone. Fullerton hated speeches, but it didn't feel right to not say something in the face of doom. "Listen up men; three hundred of them, thirty of us. You don't kill ten of them and I'm haunting your asses. Clear?"

His own squads quickly grunted in approval. They were used to such circumstances. The others though hesitated before acknowledging. They waited until they could see the faces of the rabid Nod troops as they screamed for the blood of GDI. Then they fired.

It was a bloodbath. The Nod troops weren't expecting such a coordinated defence, the .30 calibre machine gun pumped out bursts of rounds felling several troops with each one.

Fullerton fired; reloaded, kept firing till the mag was empty, and then reloaded again. He'd never been as happy that the Rifles they were issued used lightweight caseless rounds. He'd already fired 300 bullets and still had 6 mags left. The ambush had taken Nod by surprise and resistance was sparse.

It took a full minute of sustained fire from the towers to reduce the Nod troops to charred meat. Fullerton was awestruck. They'd held the line for now.

Another two rushes came at them, this time they were hard pressed. The Nod troops opened fire on the towers. Hundreds of bullets bounced off the hardened steel and a few random RPG impacts punched holes in the structure. But they held. Fullerton lived ten of the longest minutes he'd ever lived as he shot, ducked, and repeated it time and time again against what seemed like a flood of Nod troops. The grassland in front of them had become heap of dead Nod troops. He couldn't help but think of what to do with so many bodies.

With only three mags left for his rifle and his suit drenched in sweat, Fullerton was relieved to see and hear the engines of six GDI APCs as they entered the fray from the east. The massive .50 cal chainguns mounted on top of them made quick work of the few remaining Nod troops. Cheers from the towers told Fullerton that not all was lost, they still had fighting spirit. Fullerton grinned as he ordered his squads out to scavenge the Nod bodies for ammo. He wanted revenge, and he wasn't going to miss out on this.

Fullerton made a mad dash over to where the APCs had parked in front of the entrance to the Pentagon. He distinctly made out the flashy armor of Grenadiers rushing out of the Pentagon. He could hear and see on his tactical display the orders trickling down. The APC's were loading up the Grenadiers; they'd sweep the city clean of Nod infestation while waiting for more reinforcements. Fullerton and his squad were to protect the Pentagon from further ground attack. Fullerton had no intention of doing that personally though – orders be damned, he wanted Nod's head on a stake.

Technically, Fullerton outranked these enlisted Grenadiers, but the Grenadiers always held a certain more respect among the armed forces. One of them noticed him joining them and chuckled. "Hey Rifleman! You stick to shooting the infantry, we'll handle those buildings."

Fullerton gave the Grenadier his middle finger as he charged towards the APC. "Fat chance Grenadier, I've got a couple hundred rounds I wanna give back to Nod."

The Grenadiers laughed and didn't complain anymore. Fullerton always saw them as more rebellious and dashing than most GDI troops. You _had_ be to just a little crazy to throw rocket propelled grenades by hand.

Fullerton hopped on board the trailing APC and kept quiet. The grenadiers took up positions near the firing ports and inputted info into their arm computers, guidance data no doubt. Fullerton on the other hand refilled his ammo with GDI issue rounds instead of the handmade Nod bullets, and even grabbed a few of the advanced grenades for himself. He'd been cross trained in most GDI weapons including grenades. He'd scored so highly that he was even on the waiting list for Zone Trooper deployment

The APCs started their drive to the main city. EVA told them that four main buildings were being used as garrisons by the Nod militants. Civilians had for the most part entered the storm shelters so collateral damage would mostly be material instead of lives. A few burnt and bullet ridden bodies still littered the street though. Fullerton gripped his rifle just a little tighter.

_"Heads up troopers! Enemy contact dead ahead!"_

There were a few dozen militants rioting in the streets. They hadn't made it into the downtown apartment complex yet and these soldiers seemed to be celebrating. The Colonel driving the APC screamed as he targeted them. "Cut em down!"

The grenadiers popped open their firing ports and started throwing. Fullerton opened up and added his rifle fire to the APC's chainguns. The combined fire shredded the nod militants, fragmentation grenades tore deep gouges into their light armor, sending them flying in torn pieces. It wasn't long before the APCs started taking fire from the buildings themselves, garrisoned troops no doubt.

_"Grenadier squad, switch to thermobaric mode!"_

Fullerton racked his mind for the information – the thermobaric mode on the grenades meant that even if only one grenade made it into the building, the entire floor would be scorched free of enemy soldiers. Usually, the blast was so powerful that bodies as well as furniture would fly out the windows.

Fullerton stood and watched, it was a sight to behold. The grenades guided themselves into the windows where fire was incoming, and seconds later, a massive boom followed by the rush of air was heard.

The Nod Militants came flying out, none of them alive, flailing about in the air as the concrete and steel protecting them suddenly kept the pressure and heat contained. In a few short seconds, the entire building was clear on any life.

Fullerton winced as he saw scorched bodies smack onto the pavement below, from twenty stories up these recently deceased troops still made a mess when they landed. Sympathy wasn't there, but human decency still nagged at him. Fullerton knew nobody could survive that kind of pressure, but he still had to fight the urge to put a few rounds into the broken bodies. The dichotomy would be annoying if he paid any attention to it.

It wasn't long before they found the second building, and with equally devastating results, swept it clean. As they headed for the 3rd building, EVA came online and gave new orders from the Commander.

_"Nod forces detected, the main Nod base is to the northwest, resistance is estimated to be light to medium. Prioritize the destruction of this base as it contains Nod Airfields that are harassing GDI forces in the vicinity. There is also a small Nod Support base to the north, destroying it will provide reinforcements from the north a clear passage."_

The colonel in charge of the tanks spat out orders, they were going to clear out the rest of these buildings and liberate downtown Washington from Nod infestation, then after meeting up with some more reinforcements on the way, destroy the small Nod outpost. With a full tank column of hopefully ten APCs counting estimated reinforcements, they would level the Nod main base.

Fullerton thought it was a sound plan, and before long they were already meeting up with the first batch of reinforcements from the east. Another 2 APCs with grenadiers.

_"Sgt. Fullerton, please respond."_

Fullerton cursed quietly; he'd hoped nobody would notice he was missing from the Pentagon. "This is Fullerton."

_"Sergeant, order your men to head for the downtown district, we've managed to siphon off enough power for our defence system to come back online. Your troops will sweep the city for pockets of resistance and then join the main strike force."_

"Roger that, sir."

_"And tell that Colonel to give em hell."_

Fullerton acknowledged the order. He couldn't help but wonder why they would contact him personally. Maybe they knew he went with the APCs and weren't mad about it. Nevertheless, he'd been used to getting yelled at for biting off more than his fair share, his being alive attested to his being able to chew through it. He gave his orders and got back to defending the APC.

Once the APCs were networked, they led a coordinated move towards the Nod Outpost. They could make out the distinct features of a nod base, black and red colors and a circular pattern to the buildings.

The Colonel in charge of the column drawled orders. _"Grenadier Squad, half of you switch to high explosive mode, Concentrate on the buildings, the rest of you stay thermo and prioritize infantry."_

Fullerton figured his rifle would be most effective on RPG wielding militants, it was more effective at taking the infantry down than the hand tossed grenades.

Once in range, they met with stiff resistance. An unhealthy number of militants rushed out of the Hand of Nod barracks, most without even armor on, but the RPG's and scattered rifle fire still posed a threat.

Fullerton shielded his eyes as he saw the APC next to him take an RPG hit, the armor plating took the hit and kept the troops inside safe, but it wouldn't be able to take many more hits though. He tracked where the rockets came from and put both militants down with a sustained burst each.

From Fullerton's field of fire, he had great tracking to take down the spread out Nod troopers. Most were panicking and starting to run away – Fullerton felt vindicated when another two APCs came from the north of the base firing more rounds than even a chaingun could..

_"APC squad at your command Colonel, We've got 2 squads of rifleman ready to take your orders."_

_"Form up and open fire."_

Simple orders, and within a minute, most Nod militants were out of the picture and only the buildings were still standing. A pair of minutes and coordinated grenade and .50 cal attacks were sufficient to take them both down.

The Colonel in charge gave another order, Fullerton reloaded his rifle and moved his now burning legs – riflemen were supposed to run dammit. _"All APCs form up; damaged APCs to the rear. New guys, one on each side, I'll take the lead."_

The Colonel pushed his APC to the lead of the pack, Fullerton's was right behind him. Ten minutes of high speed driving and they had passed under the highway that separated the original GDI controlled area and the now Nod infested area.

It wasn't long before they met resistance, this time it wasn't the unprepared targets they had before. Now they had to dodge heavier calibre rounds as well as more sustained RPG fire. The grenadiers were still out of range, the tactical map showed the Nod base just up ahead but there were a pair of towering skyscrapers that were fully garrisoned and pouring down fire, there were also Nod vehicles incoming, Fullerton thanked god there were no tanks, just Raider buggies and Rocket Bikes. The .50 cal's on the APCs could take them both down but those bikes would pose a threat.

Fullerton let loose with his rifle, he even tossed a few grenades to some effect, he could feel the impact of bullets on the armor of the APC and started to get nervous, a few RPGs could disable the APC and render the troops inside motionless.

Against his wishes, the APC he was in suddenly rushed ahead with another three, the remaining seven flanked out and went for each building. He understood. He was bait to distract the garrisoned troops.

Fullerton steeled himself for a fight and opened the port again, and was promptly flung against the opposite wall. His vision blurred, he could taste blood in his mouth. Fullerton tried to get to his feet but his legs wouldn't respond.

The next thing he knew, he was being dragged out of the APC. He didn't know what was going on but it wasn't good. Fullerton suddenly felt a pressure wave and his kidnapper fell to the ground. Fullerton struggled to get up and saw the APC he was in had taken multiple RPG rounds and the fuel tank had exploded under the barrage. His kidnapper was actually the grenadier who was next to him. The same one who'd ribbed him originally at the Pentagon.

Fullerton forced his legs to work and helped up the grenadier. They both hobbled to a nearby building and took cover. They made sure each was still in one piece then tried to radio the higher ups. The radar and communications on their EVA links were dead – some kind of jamming. Fullerton didn't feel like taking a walk into the middle of a bullet storm so they decided to get into the building and provide covering fire for the others. The Grenadier agreed and they moved into the building.

The place was torn apart and burnt, Nod had probably enjoyed destroying whatever GDI influence the building had, but thankfully there weren't any civilians around – dead or alive. Fullerton didn't want to turn this into babysitting.

As they reached the top of the stairway they could hear rifle fire and screams from the rooftop. He suddenly realized they had entered a building that was under Nod control and the whole place was the perfect target for any grenadier still below. The idea of being liquefied by a thermobaric grenade didn't appeal to either GDI soldier.

The grenadier decided to step up first, he signalled Fullerton to get and primed a grenade for a delayed fuse. He tossed it up the stairs and shut the heavy steel door. Both braced themselves.

It was unlike anything Fullerton had ever experienced, the shockwaves weren't strong enough to hurt him, but he felt his ears pop loudly and could taste blood in the back of his mouth, he could see the Grenadier was feeling the same. He shook off the disorientation and tried the door. The knob turned but it just rattled. Fullerton ended up having to kick the door open. The sudden movement made him dizzy and the grenadier had to hold him steady.

"Whoa, easy there partner, Nod ain't dead yet."

Fullerton grunted, he wouldn't die now, not like this.

They limped up to the rooftop; there weren't any more Nod troops up here, though a few spent magazines still littered the floor. The grenadier finally managed to get a stable connection on his EVA arm link. "They're still fighting, but we're winning! Those Nod bastards are running!"

Fullerton dragged himself over to the edge of the roof, he could see the smoke and debris left over from the fighting. Most of the APC's were still driving, but three were little more than charred wrecks. The Nod base was on fire, buggies and militants falling back from the concentrated GDI retaliation. Fullerton saw he wasn't in range of any Nod anymore and simply took in the sight of the retreat.

Fullerton found himself smiling, the Grenadier next to him chuckled and patted Fullerton on the shoulder. They'd survived, but there were still plenty of Nod to kill.


End file.
